The Ghana Intellectual Property Office of the Registrar-General’s Department has launched this year’s World Intellectual Property Day, in Accra, with a call on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) owners, especially women to develop Intellectual Property (IP) strategy for their businesses.
That will enable them to protect their IP rights and enhance their business competitiveness in the market space.
Launched in collaboration with the Copy Right Office and the Chamber of Agribusiness, Ghana, the Intellectual Property Day sought to inform the public about the role of intellectual property rights in encouraging innovation and creativity for their businesses.
It also sought to highlight on the impact of IP rights such as patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyright on daily life, and their role in encouraging innovation and creativity.
The theme for this year: “Women and IP: Accelerating Innovation and Creativity,” aimed to celebrate the “can do” attitude of women innovators, creators and entrepreneurs around the world and their ground-breaking work, that were making solutions that support the growth of businesses.
Speaking at the launch, Mrs Grace Ama Issahaque, the Acting Registrar-General, noted that many women, particularly in Ghana were setting up new creative trends, building businesses and transforming the world.
However, she explained that, many of the MSMEs had little knowledge about Intellectual Property rights, the IP assets of their businesses and its importance to business commercialization and profitability.
“We have women scientists and researchers in our various institutions developing better technologies that work for us,” she said, adding that they were also “establishing thriving businesses,”
“Others also think IP is expensive, hence, they do not have an IP strategy at all for their businesses.”
She encouraged women who owned MSMEs to therefore, develop an IP strategy for their businesses to give them competitive edge over other market players.
Mrs Issahaque said the Office remained committed in ensuring that businesses and MSMEs got the needed credit for such small startups and to reap the benefits.
The Acting Registrar-General indicated that, as part of efforts to improve the understanding of MSMEs on IP rights, the IP Office was collaborating with the Chamber of Agribusiness to include a two-day exhibition for women-led MSMEs, as part of activities to mark this year’s World Intellectual Property Day.
She urged business women nurturing ideas of owning businesses in both goods and services, to “take advantage of this event to learn about how to use IP in their business, protect their IP rights and enhance competitiveness in the market place.”
She encouraged business owners and other persons in the creative industry to visit the Ghana Intellectual Property Office to be abreast with the IP rights, to protect Ideas they had created.
World Intellectual Property Day is marked on April 26, annually.